


Space Time Gaps

by Moonsetta



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Friendship, Gen, Getting Together, Love, M/M, One-Sided Acxa/Keith, One-Sided Allura/Lance (Voltron), One-Sided Allura/Lotor (Voltron), One-Sided Keith/Lance (Voltron), Requited Love, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 16:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19254781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsetta/pseuds/Moonsetta
Summary: After the complete breaking of his heart at Allura's hands, Lance's conscious apparently took a long walk off of a short pier because he had just ruined everything for Voltron.What else can he do but hide beneath the covers like the pathetic little kid he really is?ENDGAME: Klance, Lotura





	Space Time Gaps

Keith Kogane had come to expect the strange and unusual in his life during the past few years. Space Paladins of Voltron and all light-traveling to the furthest reaches of the universe.

This…this was certainly new though.

…Because if Lance McClain EVER had a problem-he went to his best friend, Hunk, or flirted with random aliens to avoid facing said problems. 

…

OK, granted there was that one time after they had recovered Shiro and he had come to Keith about his insecurities, but that had been a short few minutes of slightly uncomfortable tension.

This…

This was…

Lance walking straight into his room in the middle of the night and throwing himself on top of Keith as if he were an overdramatic soap opera star or a giant teddy bear to cuddle. Granted, Lance was overdramatic, and he’d probably make a great actor if given the chance. Except the feelings and actions in the darker moments of the simulated night were all too real. The arms snaking around Keith and holding tight like a pair of hungry cobras, the short gasps of breath against the skin of his Keith’s neck making it warm and the tears twirling like racecars down his friend’s tanned skin were all too real signs of the reality occurring at this very moment in time.

They had become close friends, there was no doubting that, but it had somehow been enough for Lance to cuddle and cry with the guy he had seen as a rival and competitor for so long?

Hmm…there was a reason Keith didn’t do much socialization, outside of being half alien that was. Though, that probably did have a bit to do with it. Getting to be among the species of his other half had certainly taught him how to better recognize his own emotions and Lance’s own methods of forcing him into human-socialization had had its own benefits in times of negotiation.

This though-this was a job for Hunk Garret. Why wasn’t Lance going to him?

The Black Paladin simply didn’t know what to do about a crying teammate clinging to him in the middle of the night while said teammate was having some kind of-experience. 

Keith didn’t do this.

Lance-didn’t do this.

So, taking a page from when he had seen his second in command comfort grieving aliens in the past, he kept quiet, turned them sideways so Lance was between him and the wall behind his bed and just held him. It was all he could think to do. He wasn’t exactly certain how to say, “What the hell! Get off me!”

Part of his mind reared up and reminded him that if he had been with the Blades, they wouldn’t have had any patience with the situation. They simply would have wanted to know the problem immediately, nevermind the state someone was in, it wouldn’t have mattered because freaking out didn’t solve the problem. It worked for the Blades and the Galra-but, not for many others. 

Keith closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift through memories, after all, Lance, the-chatterbox, would spill everything when he was ready. That’s just how the guy worked.

 

It’s halfway through a memory of a foster sister whose eyes met his for a moment and then slid off sideways to glance outside at a raging storm, when Lance’s voice breaks through his mental haze and Keith’s eyes are forced open. The younger man has finally loosened his grip and pulled back away from staining his leader’s neck with his tears. His normal ocean blue eyes are bloodshot-Keith thinks it’s rather symbolic of the blue and red lions now. 

“What happened?” he asked, unemotional. Mentally smacking himself upside the head.

Great job! Nice lead-in there Kogane!

OK, so he still didn’t have any tact most of the time. Though, it never seemed to bother Lance any longer. Not since they had gotten close. 

It didn’t appear to be bothering him now as he released Keith with one arm to reach up and wipe at the tear tracks on his face. 

“I’m sorry,” he kind of squeaked out.

That was kind of adorable. Maybe he should tell the guy that later.

“Don’t apologize for feeling something Lance. What happened and how do we fix it?”

The blue eyes widened for a moment as Keith reached the “we” of that sentence and he stored that information away in the back of his mind for later. Right now…

“I-I…Keith?”

“Yes?”

“Allura wanted to talk to me earlier.”

Keith lifted an eyebrow and hinted, “OK?”

“She said she loved me and then kissed me.”

Keith’s second eyebrow ascended after the first because…

“That was a bad thing?”

“YES!”

Both of Lance’s arms shot away and up and above their heads as he whisper-yelled with the once-absent-tears trailing back down his face. “I was never good enough for Allura until I was a quiznaking rebound for Lotor!”

And then his arms were back around Keith and he had buried his face back into the side of Keith’s neck.

OK. He did not know what to do here. Keith had never been in love, the greatest feelings he had ever experienced were love for his older brother and love for his newly discovered mother. Both of those forms of love had been familial. Lust and romance were foreign concepts to him, so he didn’t know what to do here. Maybe he should think about the topics soon, work things out.

“Do you think she means it?” he asked. Again, no tact Kogane!

“No…” Lance mumbled into his skin.

“I’m sorry.”

-Was all he could say and just pulled the other guy closer. 

“That quiznaking sucks Lance. What do you need me to do?”

“…Can I stay?”

“Of course.”

It only took a few minutes for Lance to doze off, tired as he was but Keith lay awake in the dark. Something told him training the next morning was not going to be fun.

Good thing he could run a full day on two hours of rest!

* * *

Well, Keith knew it would be bad. He just didn’t think it would get THIS bad. He had awoken early and left Lance to sleep in wrapped up like a burrito in his bed. He managed a meager breakfast near the campfire where Pidge was typing fiercely at her laptop. She had glanced up at him, over at the Red Lion and then over at the Black Lion, but ultimately said nothing-letting herself get lost in the codes she found comfort in. He couldn’t blame her for that. 

Within the hour though, Keith found himself being drowned in the responsibilities he had taken on as the Black Paladin and Leader of Voltron. There were the rebels, there were the Blades of Mamora, there were the representatives of the planets of the Voltron Collation, there were the potential allies that had yet to make a pledge, there was Slav mouthing off probabilities to anyone in the immediate area, there was running preventive measures to keep Shiro from strangling Slav and keeping him resting-the guy had just come out of a coma after all. There was his old Mamora team that wanted to exchange information and tease him about this crush Axca supposedly had on him-he didn’t see it- before they left for the Milky Way. There was his mother wanting to spend more time with him and there was his pet wolf Cosmo teleporting all over the place, stealing everyone’s attention and begging for scraps of food.

And then there was team Voltron. 

Hunk trying to feed everyone.

Pidge burrowing into a bush nearby to get away from the social obligations she didn’t understand. Lucky!

Allura curled up next to Blue looking like her world had crashed down around her.

Coran constantly fidgeting with a piece of orange cloth, dropping it and picking it back up again like he didn’t know exactly what to do with it. 

Shiro trying to murder Slav-again!

It took hours to calm everything down to where he could gather the team for training. 

-Except Shiro. Shiro had to sit on the sidelines by the Black Lion, drink his avocado/popcorn-flavored juice and be a good little space boy.

“But-!”

“Sit down Shiro!”

The older man pouted and crossed his arms across his chest, perching on one of the purple and orange polka-dotted trees one of the planet’s locals had knocked down. It was strange how the bird-like people of SeaZame preferred to knock down their trees instead of sitting in them but-aliens!

After getting his older brother situated and promising his mother a round of show and tell in a few hours Keith finally made his way to where his team was gathered together in a clearing the locals had cleared for them to train in. Alas, it was not meant to be easy because Keith overheard and then found quite the scene.

Unfortunately for the local foliage, He had heard the shouting before could round the tree.

“OK guys, just calm down.”

“Stay out of this Hunk!”

“-but Lance!”

“No!”

“Lance if you would merely listen to what I have to say-“

“Why!? So, you can get your mind off your homicidal ex-boyfriend?”

Crap. Not good!

He sped up.

“I think you’re both idiots.”

“Excuse me Pidge, but no one asked for your opinion.”

“Don’t you talk to her like that!”

“Lance if you would only listen to me!”

“I don’t want to hear it Allu-ugh!”

“ALLURA PUT HIM DOWN!”

Quiznak! Forget walking around the foliage! 

Keith drew both of his swords and sliced through the greenery separating him from the others. 

Forget going around the long way!

Once the area was clear he shot forward, thrusting his Galra-blade between where Allura had increased her size and had the Red Paladin a foot off the ground with her hand around his throat. Thankfully, the blade frightened her enough that she released Lance and sprang backwards.

“What do you think you all are doing!?” he shouted, glaring at all of them. 

Hunk had fallen to his knees beside Lance and was rubbing his back as his best friend tried to regain his breath. Pidge had crossed her arms and turned away from the entire group, her head only now slightly turned to look at Keith. Allura herself was shaking with her hands clasped over her mouth.

“Lance I-I’m sorry I-“

She reached out a hand towards the downed paladin. Lance glared back, Hunk threw an arm over his shoulders and pulled him close just as Keith slid his own body between the duo and the apologizing princess. 

“Quiet Allura,” Keith ordered.

She closed her mouth, shrunk down to her normal size and shifted her stance to seem as small as possible at the moment. 

“Everyone be quiet. Lance, your words were uncalled for.”

Rubbing his throat, Lance simply glared up at him.

“And Allura-don’t you EVER raise a hand in violence to anyone on my team again! Understand?”

Lance muttered under his breath, “OK.”

Allura whispered back softly, “I understand.”

Keith took a deep breath and turned to point at Hunk and then Pidge, “You two drill escaping holds until I get back.”

“But…” Hunk gestured to Lance. 

“I’ll take care of this. Lance, Allura both of you come with me.”

He turned without checking if they were following and rushed his way back through the foliage path that he had cut through but a few moments before. He had assumed that the two of them could manage silence until they found a quiet place to chat. Unfortunately, Keith was the Black Paladin and Leader of Voltron, so when they stumbled back to the gathering center he found that the number of delegates and advisors from the morning had somehow tripled and Romelle was looking at him in desperation from the middle of a crowd as everyone was trying to get information out of the poor girl. 

He had to rescue her. Where was his mother? She wouldn’t have much trouble scaring these beings off. Then Keith reminded himself that he had to be diplomatic. It was his job. Why him?

That’s when the two beings behind him caught up enough to stop. Turns out they couldn’t keep quiet. Surprise. Surprise.

“I’m telling you the truth Lance!”

“Stop lying to me!”

Quiznak! Were all red and blue paladins just determined by fate to end up fighting one another? They would never be able to form Voltron like this! He had to do something! 

But what could he do?

“Lance, I love you!”

“NO, YOU DON’T!”

“Please Lance, I promise I’ll be everything you want!”

“What I wanted was for you to like me for me! Not because you’re getting off on cheap feelings that aren’t even real!”

“I love you!”

“NO! You love Lotor! You’re still in love with him!”

“That’s not true I-“

“Shut up Allura! I told you I was in love with you! You knew I was! And you didn’t love me back!”

“Lance I can love you back-I do!”

“No, you don’t! I told you: I’M DONE! I’M SO QUIZNAKING DONE WITH YOU!”

Alright, that was far enough. He had to knock some sense into these two! Keith turned back towards the two, gathering what words he could from his brain-knowing he was going to start with a “BE QUIET!” but he never made it that far. Not because he was interrupted but because just as his eyes landed back on his teammates, he finally spotted what he had failed to notice before. 

There was a large bruised ring around Lance’s neck and that would have made him angry enough- if he hadn’t also noticed the nail marks that were leaking blood. He didn’t really think at the moment, reaching for the wound-sealing patches all Blades kept in one of the compartments of the standard utility belt. He had already stepped forward and pressed it into the worst of the nail marks on Lance’s neck by the time Lance had yelled his last words.

His movement had caused both the Red and Blue Paladins to glance over at him instead of each other, though both still had their fists clenched in anger. 

“You’re hurt,” Keith explained, glancing away towards the ground at the icy blue stares directed at him.

Which he really shouldn’t be doing because he was their leader, their commander. He was only thankful that the group of aliens had yet to notice the paladins’ shouting over their own raucous. He quickly took his hand away and looked back at his teammate’s neck to ensure the patch was spreading correctly to cover all his wounds. 

Keith cleared his throat and glanced up at his teammates. “This has gone on long enough-both of you. This needs to end, we’re never going to be able to form Voltron and save the universe like this.”

Allura muttered an apology and glanced longingly at Lance before opening her mouth to softly speak, “Lance. I know I hurt you, physically and psychologically. I’m sorry.”

Lance narrowed his eyes back at her and huffed, “This doesn’t change the past two years Allura. You knew I liked you and you still-!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Bad enough Hunk and Pidge were rubbing you and Lotor in my face-”

What? Hunk and Pidge what?

Keith blinked in shock. He couldn’t do anything else with that statement. 

“-now you have the gall to step up and lie to my face!”

Allura growled. “I don’t understand. Aren’t I everything you wanted? Why don’t you just take it?”

“Because it’s not real!”

Not again. Keith got ready to physically push them back, hands raised to get between them.

“How would you even know Lance? It’s not like anyone out there actually loved you!”

It was too far, he knew it. Keith’s breath caught in his throat and his hands automatically went to curl around Lance’s shoulders and press against his chest, prepared to stop the guy from being reckless or striking out in anger. 

Wow wasn’t he the one to talk?

Surprisingly, Lance said nothing and did nothing. He just turned towards Keith. Keith wasn’t blind though-he knew Lance hadn’t had any kind of semi-successful relationship out in space when love and lust seemed to be necessary for normal, non-half-alien, humans. 

Lance’s blue eyes were shining through, exactly as they did when he held back the emotions that he didn’t want other people to see. At this moment though, he had no humor to distract people from the situation. He was too upset to be happy and Keith couldn’t help it. Lance’s expression and his eyes, the horror on Allura’s face as she immediately clapped her hands back over her mouth.

She muttered a, “Please, forgive me,” while Lance stared at Keith as if asking: It’s not true isn’t it? Tell me it’s not true.

Keith couldn’t stop himself. “Of course, we all love you, Lance. Don’t ever forget that.”

He let his arms drop from Lance’s shoulders and chest, no longer fearing him getting too angry. He took a breath to tell them off for letting things get this bad when many things happened at once.

1\. Romelle couldn’t take it anymore and shouted out “The Black Paladin is over there!”  
2\. Allura stepped forward, a gentle hand reaching out towards Lance  
3\. Shiro fell face first over in the dirt where he had been trying to make his way over to them  
4\. All members of the Voltron Collation, their allies, the delegates of hopeful new allies, the Rebellion, the Blades of Mamora, the New Alteans, Coran, his Mamora team and his Mother all turned to look at him at once. 

And lastly, Lance stepped forward-one hand shooting up to bury his fingers in Keith’s hair and the other curling around his hip. Keith couldn’t breathe as Lance drew their bodies together and placed a very purposeful kiss onto his lips; eyelids fluttering closed as everything and everyone froze in silence. 

…

Within moments the visiting aliens had managed to spread the news to the outer reaches of the universe. The recorded video had even made it to Earth. The sight of the shocked Black Paladin frozen stiff as his second-in-command was pressing their bodies and lips together had been beamed across every solar system within range.


End file.
